Heat, flood, cold & lightning killed 1,600 Indians in 2016 (16/1/17)

NEW DELHI: More than 1,600 people died due to extreme weather conditions across the country last year, with severe heat wave claiming the largest chunk of the total deaths at 40%, followed by flooding and lightning.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) said 2016 was the warmest year ever recorded, globally and in India. Phalodi in Rajasthan recorded 51 degrees Celsius, the highest ever temperature recorded in the country. January and February were the warmest winter months ever, according to IMD, which has been recording weather patterns since 1901. Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra topped the casualty list with the states contributing 35% of the total death toll. Together, they recorded 552 deaths due to extreme weather patterns.
According to an IMD report, 40% of deaths were due to heat wave, which claimed over 700 lives, with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh together recording the maximum deaths i.e. more than 400. Gujarat and Maharashtra registered 87 and 43 deaths due to heat wave, respectively; cold wave claimed 53 lives. Lightning claimed more than 415 lives with the worst hit being Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Odisha alone recorded more than 132 deaths due to lightning, while 43 deaths occurred in Maharashtra. IMD last year started issuing summer and winter forecasts with heat wave and cold wave warnings. After two consecutive droughts, India last year had a normal monsoon, but several parts saw heavy to very heavy rainfall, that led to floods in many areas.
Over 475 lives were lost in floods and thunderstorms. Bihar alone saw nearly 146 deaths due to flooding be tween July 25 to September 3.2016 saw four cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal, the major being severe cyclonic storm Vardah, which killed 18 people in Tamil Nadu.
"Accurate predictions helped minimise loss of lives during Vardah and prediction of heavy rains. But when it comes to events like lightning, it becomes difficult as in several instances it takes places in villages and hamlets. Mobile companies can play a proactive role in helping disseminate information in a particular district or hamlet by sending alerts," IMD director general KJ Ramesh said.Source

Slovakian motorcyclist Ivan Jakes has miraculously survived a lightning strike while riding his motorbike in the Dakar rally in South America, Slovakian radio reported on Thursday.
The incident occurred during the rally’s third stage near the Argentinian city of San Salvador de Jujuy. The motorcyclist managed to put down one of his feet from the bike onto the ground, thanks to which the electric discharge went through him, the radio said.
The motorcyclist feels well and wishes to continue his participation in the rally. This issue will be decided by doctors after Jake undergoes a comprehensive medical check-up, the radio said.
The Dakar rally’s next stage 521 km long will be held on Thursday.Source

Lightning strikes and a Christmas washout in northern Europe (28/12/2016)

Two planes have been struck by lightning in Denmark as Storm Urd sweeps across Scandinavia. In Germany, a woman has been killed after a tree fell onto her car in stormy weather.
Two planes en route to Copenhagen in Denmark were struck by lightning on Monday. A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Reykjavik in Iceland was forced to make an emergency landing on the Danish island of Bornholm with more than 100 people on board.
Passengers were due to continue their journey on Tuesday after staying on the island overnight.
The plane had already been diverted after strong winds prevented it from landing in Copenhagen on Monday afternoon. The plane was then struck by lightning on approach to Malmö Airport, in Sweden, and subsequently redirected to Bornholm.
A plane traveling from London was also struck by lightning but was able to complete its journey to the Danish capital. Copenhagen Airport warned that strong winds were likely to cause further disruption to flights on Tuesday.
Storm Urd has swept over Scandinavia during the Christmas holidays, causing flooding, power blackouts and transport disruption across Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Authorities in all three countries reportedly advised people in the areas worst affected to consider staying at home on Monday night.
Gales and heavy rain hit northern Germany on Monday. Emergency fire services in Hamburg attended some 80 call-outs in relation to the bad weather and there were reports of flooded property and toppling trees and scaffolding.
In nearby Kiel, a 34-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell onto her car during stormy weather. A 24-year-old male passenger was taken to Kiel university hospital with serious injuries.
Storm Conor brought rain and winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour to the north of the United Kingdom on Tuesday morning. This follows on from Storm Barbara, which left thousands of homes without power in northern Scotland last week. Further south, major roads were closed due to icy conditions.
Source

Zap! 'Petrified Lightning' Could Reveal the Shocking Heat of the Strikes (17/12/16)

Petrified lightning, or rocks that have been zapped and superheated by a lightning strike, could reveal details about the shocking weather phenomenon, new research suggests.
When lightning strikes a rock, the huge jolt of current heats up the material for microseconds, vaporizes substances inside and forms a glassy rock called fulgurite, study co-author Jiangzhi Chen, an applied physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said here Wednesday (Dec. 14) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
By analyzing the bubbles that form inside fulgurite, Chen and his colleagues can calculate hot the material gets, and that, in turn, can reveal insights into how exactly lightning works, Chen said. [Electric Earth: Stunning Images of Lightning]
Lightning occurs when an electrical current is transmitted from clouds to the ground, illuminating the sky and creating dangerously high voltage. But even though this is one of the more everyday occurrences in nature, scientists understand very little about how lightning actually works.
Researchers have a variety of methods of measuring the energy and current generated during a lightning strike, such as taking pictures of the actual strikes. But because lightning strikes are random, it can be hard to catch them in action. What's more, many of those methods can differ by several orders of magnitude, Chen said.
By contrast, fresh fulgurite can be easily acquired a day or two after a lightning strike. The rock is also easily distinguishable: It has reddish patches and burn marks from the lightning strike, Chen said. Fulgurite is also filled with bubbles that form when substances such as carbon dioxide, water and oxygen in the rock vaporize, Chen added.
To see if they could get understand the temperatures and energy levels reached when lightning strikes, Chen and his colleagues cut a piece of fulgurite rock from the top of Mount Mottarone in Italy. Chen then thinly sliced the rock, put it under a microscope, and characterized the size, distribution and number of vapor bubbles in the material.
Scientists can determine the underlying composition of the rock by measuring the frequencies of light that reflect off of it. Knowing that, combined with a model of how frequently bubbles seed at different temperatures, Chen and his colleagues can come up with an estimation of just how hot the rock got during the lightning zap, and how long it stayed hot. That, in turn, can give some understanding of the lightning strike's total energy, he said.
Still, there are some limitations in this estimate.
When lightning strikes "only a fraction of the energy is actually transmitted to the rock," Chen told Live Science. The rest gets dissipated as it electrifies the air and causes the thunder that accompanies the strikes, among other things, he said.
Right now, the findings are a matter of pure scientific curiosity, but they could potentially make it easier to study other huge shocks to the Earth, such as bomb blasts and meteorite strikes.
"Those impact events are relatively to difficult to study, but lightning hitting a target is relatively easy to find," Chen said.Source

More than 50,000 lightning strikes hit South Australia (8/12/20116)

SOUTH Australians were treated to a natural sky show last night as a severe thunderstorm delivered tens of thousands of lightning strikes across the state from Wednesday afternoon.
More than 50,000 lightning strikes were recorded as the storm moved east across the state.
The storm reached the city when night fell and persisted until about midnight, giving photographers plenty of opportunities to capture the perfect shot.
Fresh strikes were still recorded in the North East Pastoral region about 11.30am on Thursday.
Rain came with the lightning, with a good drenching at Mount Lofty.
More than 28mm of rain was recorded in the Mount Lofty Ranges in the 24-hours to 9am on Thursday — the highest rainfall overnight in the state.
The city copped about 8mm of rainfall while Charleston in the hills, received 23mm.
Photographer Harley Cummins was driving home when he saw the skies lit up so he pulled over at Brighton Beach about 11pm.
“The lightning just kept coming and coming,” he said.
“It wasn’t until the lightning stopped before it started pouring.”Source

A young boy has been taken to hospital and several people in a unit block have been assessed by paramedics after separate lightning strikes on homes on the Gold Coast.
The five-year-old suffered burns to his hands and back around 4.45pm on Wednesday at a house at Tallai, said Gavin Fuller from Queensland Ambulance.
“He was hanging onto a tap at the time the house or near the house was struck by lightning ... he’s been taken to Robina hospital in a stable condition,” Fuller said.
It came after paramedics were called to a unit block in Miami, which was also struck by lightning.
“That lightning has travelled through the roof, through the eaves, onto a metal fence and down into the cement, and it has blown quite a large hole in the cement,” Fuller said.
Fortunately no one was injured in that situation, although a number of people, including a woman in her 50s, were treated at the scene for shock.
The lightning strikes were due to thunderstorms rolling across the Gold Coast region, as well as the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday afternoon. The storms had largely moved out to sea by 5.45pm, however bureau forecaster Andrew Bufalino said volatile conditions would continue into the evening.
It follows an early morning storm which rolled over the region leaving thousands without power as almost 40,000 lightning strikes hit, the second such early-morning display in as many days.
Source

A man has died and a woman was injured after lightning struck their campsite on a mountain summit in New South Wales.
More than 6,000 lightning bolts lit up Sydney's sky as severe thunderstorms hit the state.
"Lightning struck a tree, there was two campers were in a tent at the base of the tree and as a result we've had a male that's died and a woman that's been taken to hospital with neck injuries," says Tweed Byron Police Commander Wayne Starling.
Two hikers tried to resuscitate the man for over an hour.
At the storm's peak there were more than 500 strikes an hour. Beachgoers in Bondi were forced to find shelter.
"There was the most incredible noise and explosion, the like of which I've never heard before," said Sydney local Geoff McIntyre.
"And I thought God it seemed it hit just outside the window and then you could smell smoke and you couldn't see across the river."
At the airport international flights were delayed. Ground staff were ordered undercover to avoid the risk of being struck.
And this is just the start with meteorologists warning a destructive season's on its way.Source

Vicious storm cell wreaks havoc across Sydney (5/12/2016)

A brief but vicious storm has left a man struck by lightning, a house on fire, another struck by a falling tree, heavy rain and hail and delays to planes and trains.
Sydney was hammered by the hour-long storm on Monday afternoon, wreaking havoc across the city.
A yachtsman was hit by one of 5000 of lightning strikes and taken to hospital in Mona Vale, according to 9 News.
In Huntleys Cove, on Sydney's Lower North Shore, a house caught fire after being struck by lightning.
he mother and two daughters inside escaped safely.
In Peakhurst, a house was damaged when a falling tree struck it, it was reported.
Flights at the city's airport were delayed by up to two hours due to the storm.
Motorists were also delayed after severe storms cut power to traffic signals across the city.
All trains between Granville and Cabramatta were cancelled briefly on Monday afternoon as urgent repairs were undertaken on equipment battered by storms.
Train passengers in most directions out of the city were told to brace for delays.
Up to 16mm fell in Little Bay during the short but severe downpour.
Earlier, asthma and hay fever suffers in Sydney were told to stay indoors after the predicted thunderstorms to avoid experiencing breathing problems.
Respiratory physician Dr Jonathan Burdon, who chairs the National Asthma Council of Australia, said the rain was likely to stir rye grass starches and pollen which made going outside risky after the storm.
'It's really after the rain has been where the pollen gets ruptured and the starch granules start being released into the atmosphere,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
'Once the wind starts it will blow up the pollens.'
Source

Adverse weather conditionds cause major floods on Lesvos (29/11/2016)

The Monday evening storms flooded many homes and shops and turned streets into rivers in Kalloni and Plomari, on the island of Lesvos. Local media reported that there was more than 200 mm of rainfall in the evening, which caused many rivers to overflow. As a result the schools in the area of Kalloni will remain closed on Tuesday.
Serious problems were also experienced in Plomari, where the Fire Brigade had to be called out to remove a car that was swept away by the Sedountas River. The Fire Brigade and municipal authorities are working hard to restore problems and have advised drivers not to move unnecessarily. Source

Adverse weather conditions in Greece cause one death and major damages (28/11/2016)

The heavy rainfall and thunderstorms that struck Greece over the weekend resulted in one death and many damages across the country.
A 32-year-old man in Zakynthos tragically lost his life on Saturday, after his car got stuck in a flooded ditch. It appears that he managed to get out of the vehicle, but was swept away by the strong torrents, as the Fire Brigade later found his body about three kilometers away from the car.
The adverse weather conditions are expected to continue on Monday, with the temperature expected to drop by up to ten degrees in many areas in the country. Conditions in the southern Ionian, Peloponnesus, central Greece and the Aegean islands are expected to be more intense than in the rest of the country.
Source

Torrential downpours caused flooding in parts of northwest Italy on Thursday, with the rains expected to continue until the weekend.
On Friday morning, police were searching for a missing person in Perosa Argentina, a small town southwest of Turin.
According to initial reports, the man is a 70-year-old who fell into the Pellice tributary of the Po river, after a road collapsed. He was reportedly trying to help his horses when he got swept away.
The floods forced the closure of many roads, schools and businesses in the Piedmont and Liguria regions near southeastern France, which has also been hit by heavy rain.
Production has been halted at the Ferrero factory in Alba, which produces Nutella and Ferrero Rocher among other chocolatey treats, due to fears over the high level of the nearby Tanaro river.
Most bridges in Turin have been closed due to safety worries, as the Po rose to a metre above its designated safety level.
A red alert warning, the highest level, is still in place in Liguria until at least midday.
A total of around 400 people have been evacuated from their homes in Piedmont; 250 in Cuneo and 150 in Turin, while a further 200 have been evacuated in Liguria.
The presidents of the two regions said they would ask for a "state of natural disaster" to be put in place. This is different from the "state of emergency" which was put in place after the central Italy earthquakes earlier this year and is used only for disasters affecting the country on a national level.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited Turin on Thursday to meet members of the Piedmont region's Civil Protection Department and local authorities. Renzi said: "The emergency phase is not over; no one can breathe a sigh of relief just yet."
Italian television channels showed footage of the Tanaro river bursting its banks and cutting in two the town of Garessio in Cuneo province near the tiny Mediterranean principality of Monaco.
"We are frightened, this reminds us of the floods of 1994," Garessio mayor Sergio di Steffano told reporters.
Flooding on November 5 and 6, 1994, left 70 people dead. No casualties have yet been reported from Thursday's storms.
"We have shut all the bridges, factories and schools. The bars and shops in the (town) centre are flooded. The main road is shut, we are cut off from the world," di Steffano said.
Isolated hamlets have been made inaccessible by the flooding and road closures.
A leading local official from Cuneo, Giovanni Russo, called on residents to stay away from the water except in case of absolute necessity.Source

Lightning activity over western Mediterranean continued on Thursday, 24/11/2016

Thousands of lightning strikes over western Mediterranean on Thursday, 24/11/2016. ZEUS, the lightning detection network of the National Observatory of Athens, recorded over 8000 strikes, spread from the first to the last hour of the day.Source

A lot of lightning recorded yesterday (23/11/2016) over French, Spanish and Portuguese coasts and the Pyrenees.

Over 12000 lightning strikes were recorded over southwestern Europe, by the lightning detection system ZEUS of the National Observatory of Athens, on Wednesday, 23/11/2016. The most affected regions were the Portuguese coasts and off-coast Atlantic regions, the Spanish and French Mediterranean coasts and the regions around Pyrenees. Source

Police, lifeguards and coastguard helicopter search for 2 people in the water as Environment Agency issues 75 flood warnings across battered Britain in the aftermath of Storm Angus (22/11/2016)

A woman is in a life-threatening condition after being pulled from the sea as Britain is battered by yet another day of wind and rain.
The woman, who has not been named, was found after police, lifeguards and a coastguard helicopter were deployed on a search operation off the coast of Folkstone, Kent. She was airlifted to hospital this morning.
Reports suggest another person remains in the water and another rescue mission is underway.
The Environment Agency has issued 75 fresh flood warnings today, telling dozens of communities, mainly in the South West and North East, to 'take immediate action' as 'flooding is expected'.
Today thousands of commuters face renewed travel chaos as the country continues to reel from the effects of Storm Angus - which brought hurricane force winds and driving downpours to southern Britain on Sunday.
Meanwhile search teams were waiting for conditions to improve to resume an operation to find a pensioner who went missing in South Wales.
Wind warnings issued by the Met Office are due to remain in place until later this morning, with gusts of up to 70mph recorded on the Isle of Wight.
Police have been searching for Russell Sherwood, 69, along flooded land after he went missing while on his way to pick up his wife in the Stormy Down area of Bridgend in South Wales.
Search teams assisted by a helicopter searched the River Ogmore along the A48 road for Mr Sherwood on Monday morning. But police announced they were standing down their search at 3.40pm due to the extreme weather and fading light.
A spokesman for South Wales Police said: 'Officers will resume the search tomorrow once safe to do so.
'We are still appealing to the public for any information to locate Mr Sherwood who became missing after he set off on a car journey on the morning of Sunday, 20 November, 2016.'
Mr Sherwood, from Neath in South Wales, was on his way to pick up his wife in Bridgend in his silver Ford Focus around 6.15am on Sunday, but never reached his destination.
The news about Mr Sherwood comes as an elderly woman, who has not been named, was found at her home in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow yesterday morning.
It is not known how long she had been there for but temperatures dropped below freezing in the area over the weekend.
More than 100 homes have been hit by flooding after heavy rain and wind brought by Storm Angus hit the country yesterday.
There were also reports of people being helped from their vehicles. Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said two people were 'assisted from a vehicle' on the B3109 in South Wraxall.
While in Carmarthenshire, Wales, Dyfed Powys Police said a man was helped from a van which had become trapped in flood water before it was 'washed away'.
Meanwhile, passengers and crew onboard a Stena Europe ferry were forced to stay on board after the vessel failed to dock in Fishguard Harbour at 12.30pm after sailing from Rosslare, Ireland at 9am.
A spokeswoman for Stena Line said: 'The health and safety of passengers and crew is of paramount importance to Stena Line, therefore the 87 passengers and 59 crew members will remain onboard overnight until a second attempt at docking takes place at midday tomorrow.'
In the North of England, flood warnings have been issued for parts of Greater Manchester as torrential rain continues to fall in the area.
The fire service have urged people to remain in their homes due to 'neck-deep' water and there have also been reports of people being rescued from their first and second floor windows.
Source

What was that strange light in the sky?
Many people overnight reported seeing strange lights in the sky, a phenomenon that has been reported for centuries before, during, and after earthquakes.
Seismologists aren't in agreement about the causes of the hotly-debated phenomenon - called earthquake lights or, sometimes, earthquake lightning.
And, of course, it's not clear whether the lights overnight in New Zealand were the phenomenon, or something else.
One theory suggests dormant electrical charges in rocks are triggered by the stress of the Earth's crust and plate tectonics, transferring the charge to the surface where it appears as light.
Historical reports include globes, or orbs, of glowing light, floating just above the ground or in the sky.
Much like tidal research, it is an area that is notoriously difficult to investigate. Tidal stresses and their effects on the Earth are minute, but measurable, although many seismologists remain unconvinced by theories of "tidally triggered" earthquakes.
With "earthquake light", the phenomenon is also notoriously difficult to observe, study, and measure.​
GNS seismologist Caroline Holden said there were anecdotal reports of lights in the sky.
"Unfortunately, we cannot measure this phenomena or its extent with our instruments to provide a clear explanation," she said.
The phenomenon has been documented for centuries.
Hypotheses have suggested the movement of rocks could generate an electric field, others suggest quakes can lead to rocks conducting electromagnetic energy and a subsequent build up of electric charges in the upper atmosphere.
Yet another theory suggests a link between the electric charge, or current, released by the earth ripping and buckling below the surface, and the magnetic properties of rock.
The charge appears as light, so the theory goes.
People reported similar strange lights in the sky during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
In 1888, before a large quake around the Hanmer region, a strange glow in the sky was reported by observers.
One recent study documented hundreds of sightings of strange light, glowing, and aurora-like reports, from 1600 to the 19th century.
The study in the Seismological Research Letters suggested a charge builds up in rock inside the Earth's crust and, as it becomes rapidly unstable in a quake, expands outward.
In an earthquake, the electrical charge transfers from below the surface to the surface, or above, depending on the conductivity of the rock - appearing as light.
"When such an intense charge state reaches the Earth's surface and crosses the ground–air interface, it is expected to cause [an electric transmission and breakdown] of the air and, hence, an outburst of light.
"This process is suspected to be responsible for flashes of light coming out of the ground and expanding to considerable heights at the time when seismic waves from a large earthquake pass by."
The study said some seismologists also think the theory could account for other phenomena, such as changes to electrical fields, strange fog, haze, clouds, and low-frequency humming or radio frequency emission.
In the study, the researchers found the light was more often associated with a type of quake in which tectonic plates are wrenched apart, known as a "rift" earthquakeSource

Brisbane battered by huge hailstones and 3,000 lightning strikes that cut power to entire neighbourhoods (09/11/2016)

Brisbane was battered by huge hailstones and more than 3,000 lightning strikes as fierce storms pounded south-east Queensland.
More than 2,000 homes were without power after the storm on Tuesday afternoon, which saw 18mm of rain fall in just 30 minutes.
Shocked residents filmed as massive hailstones crashed to the earth, with 5cm chunks of ice coming down in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.
The ferocious storm is the just the start of the bad weather in Queensland this week, with four more days of thunder and lightning ahead.
The first flashes of lightning were spotted about 3pm on the outskirts of Brisbane and continued until at least 6pm.
As many as 3,000 lightning bolts hit Brisbane and Ipswich today, according to Weatherzone, but fortunately no one was hurt.
The summer storm came on the hottest day in parts of Brisbane since February, with highs of just under 38C.
But the temperature quickly plummeted by up to seven degrees as the rain and hail swept in.
More than 2,000 homes are with out power, with most of the blackouts on the Sunshine Coast, the Brisbane Times reported.
There were further power cuts in Ipswich and Brisbane's CBD.
Darwin is also facing a week of storms, with no sign of a day without thunder and lightning in the next week.
After a balmy weekend, Sydney is in for a couple of cooler few days.
Showers are forecast on Wednesday and Thursday, with the sunshine returning in proper on Sunday, when temperatures could reach 29C.
It will be a wet week in Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide too.
Perth is set for showers too, with rain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But the west coast city will be bathed in sunshine on Sunday and Monday, when temperatures could reach 31C.
Meanwhile, in Hobart, it will be cloudy tomorrow, with highs of 20C, before a week of rain.
Source

Weather forecasters can now provide about 15 minutes of warning before a tornado hits an area, but an advanced satellite detection system developed in Palo Alto could increase that to 30 minutes.
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper, developed by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, is scheduled to go into orbit aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite.
“By providing increased tornado warnings, we’ll be saving people’s lives on the ground,” said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin’s program director, during a press preview last week.
The Advanced Technology Center, Lockheed’s Palo Alto outpost, has also developed an advanced solar storm detection system that will provide earlier warnings of electromagnetic waves emanating from the sun that could disrupt Earth’s communications systems and electrical grid.
Both instruments will be aboard each of four weather satellites that will watch Earth’s Western Hemisphere in orbit about 22,500 miles above ground. The launch is scheduled for Nov. 19 from Cape Canaveral.
The total cost of the program, including four satellites and associated ground systems, is $10.83 billion, including 30 years of operations. Lockheed Martin will receive a portion of this total for its building and testing the satellites plus three instruments on each spacecraft.
The satellites represent an important advance in forecasting tornadoes and severe weather, said Steve Goodman, the ocean and atmospheric agency’s chief scientist for the satellites.
“This is the first major upgrade in 22 years,” Goodman said.
The 200-pound lightning mapper, roughly the size of a large gym bag, is a new tool for weather forecasters. It has seven high-powered lenses, protected from the conditions of space with a gold-plated cover, that snap images of clouds below at 500 frames per second; a standard video camera shoots 30 frames per second.
The images can detect lightning activity — including hail particles and ice crystals colliding to produce an electrical reaction — high up in clouds before it intensifies enough to start hitting the ground.
The information can help forecasters spot patterns that could develop into severe storms, Vanden Beukel said.
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The high-resolution images can detect lightning even during daylight hours, and with the satellite’s positioning, can help airline pilots avoid severe turbulence over oceans, where there aren’t ground-based weather spotting crews, Goodman said.
“We can hopefully avoid turbulence and make your flight more efficient and safer out over the ocean,” he said.
The solar imager is an updated version of a previous model, with increased ability to detect ultraviolet light from the sun. Scientists can study the images to better understand why and when solar storms form and when flares might be headed toward Earth.
Scientists believe the imager will provide more warning time for astronauts on space walks and for satellite operators to power down before their systems can be affected. Severe solar storms have also been shown to cause brownouts and blackouts on the ground.Source

Thousands of lightning strikes in southern California (25/10/2016)

Thousands of lightning strikes have occurred in southern California between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon.
Source

Lightning strike closes German Village church indefinitely (14/10/2016)

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in German Village sustained a lightning strike late last month that was so severe, the church has closed until all necessary repairs are made.
The lightning strike occurred Sept. 25, hitting the stainless-steel cross at the top of the spire.
The church is at 684 S. Third St.
After an inspection of the church building by structural engineers Oct. 7, it was determined roof-truss joints were in significant need of repair and the church would close temporarily until necessary renovations are made.
Weekend Masses will be relocated temporarily to the adjacent St. Mary Catholic School gymnasium; weekday Masses will be held in the church’s chapel.
Assessments are underway to determine the timeframe and cost for repairs, church officials said.Source

A lightning strike is believed to be the cause of a fire that started early Wednesday morning at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District headquarters on Madison’s south side.
According to a Madison Fire Department incident report, Ladder Company 6 and other crews arrived on the scene after employees saw lightning and smelled something burning.
Firefighters stopped the fire from a distance.
Firefighters and wastewater treatment staff were concerned an explosion and widespread damage could have happened because the location where the fire occurred sits on top of a digester that contains 670,000 gallons of solid waste. Each day the waste produces 60,000 cubic feet of methane gas.
The wastewater treatment operations building and a nearby home were evacuated. After crews extinguished the fire, the area was deemed safe and crews were cleared from the scene within an hour.
Source